What We Learned, April 14-20

It's our weekly look back at the Weekly's week that was, with taglines indicating what this taught us.

APRIL 14: Ron Thomas, the father of Kelly Thomas, the young man beaten to death by Fullerton cops in July 2011, participates in the Social Justice Summit at Cal State Fullerton. His topic is not vengeance but homelessness, and his message to students was not to be afraid of those who live on the streets. He urges the crowd to show respect and compassion for the homeless, volunteer at food banks, and to donate. What We Learned: That man's heart may be broken, but it's big.

Go. Wade. Now.

APRIL 15: Wade Lee Roberts, a 60-year-old registered sex offender with four previous felony strikes, allegedly picks up a 30-year-old developmentally disabled woman at bus stop, drives her to his Anaheim motel room and rapes her before she breaks free. Roberts is now up on charges that could send him to state prison for 45 years to life. What We Learned: To wish Roberts would perform his first name in a shark tank.

APRIL 16: At what was expected to be a preliminary hearing, Christopher Michael McAmis pleads guilty to the 2001 murder of Fullerton College student Lynsie Ekelund. The 32-year-old is immediately sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison. What We Learned: To stop taking preliminary hearing for granted.

Mayor Pro Temptress

APRIL 17: Anaheim City Councilwoman Lorri Galloway is stripped of her "Mayor Pro Tem" title, the latest outfall from Galloway and Mayor Tom Tait having voted against a controversial $158 million bed-tax giveaway to a hotel developer. Galloway's crime, in the eyes of her three council colleagues who support turning taxpayer funds over to a private businessman, was signing a voter initiative to rollback the giveaway with her Mayor Pro Tem title. What We Learned: To never underestimate the pettiness of three particular Anaheim councilmen.

APRIL 18: No charges will be brought in February's homicide of Joanna Ramos at the hands of one of the 10-year-old's Frances Willard Elementary School classmates, Long Beach Police announce. The department says no crime occurred, calling the incident a "fight between two children that ended with unintended and tragic results." What We Learned: That there must be no parents on the Long Beach police force.

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A Long Beach patrol officer hears gunshots around 12:02 a.m. and upon pulling up to a gas station at Pacific Coast Highway and Pacific Avenue is fired upon. Bullets hit the police car's hood and windshield--and nearly the cop behind the wheel. The shooter, who had allegedly just killed a man in his 30s, is later shot by cops and taken to a hospital in critical condition. What We Learned: That I'd be doubling up on vests if I was a cop.

APRIL 20: Just when you'd feeling all warm and fuzzy for Long Beach cops comes this: a nine-year veteran of the force has been arrested for possessing child pornography, the Long Beach Press Telegram reports. A minor telling school officials Officer Noe Yanez had inappropriate contact with him led to an investigation and the 40-year-old arrest on suspicion of possessing pervy text messages, including soliciting a kid for nude photographs. A year ago, Long Beach Police Det. Erik Alvarez was arrested in his hometown of Upland for having sex with an underage female relative. What We Learned: Chris Hansen has a future in LBPD Internal Affairs.

Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before "graduating" to OC Weekly in 1995 as the paper's first calendar editor. He has contributed as a freelance editor and writer to several publications and been the subject of or featured in several reports online, in print and on the radio and television. One of countless times he returned to his Costa Mesa, CA, home with a bounty of awards from a journalism competition, his wife told him to take out the trash.